After Round of N.C.A.A. Upsets, a Better Day for the Favorites

After tearing up millions of brackets on Thursday and Friday, underdogs in this year’s N.C.A.A. men’s basketball tournament flooded the weekend. They settled into hotel rooms in regional sites where earlier checkouts had been expected. They slept off the excitement of dizzying upset wins.

But the brutal reality of the tournament is that the underdogs did not have much time to celebrate. There were only 32 teams left Saturday, and the favorites in action among them largely managed to maintain their grip on the tournament.

That is not to say it was easy. In the afternoon, two inspirational dark horses (Wichita State and Yale) faced powerhouses of the Atlantic Coast Conference (Miami and Duke), and both games followed the same pattern: The favorites built commanding leads, only to see their upstart opponents chip away at those leads in the second half.

But both of the top seeds ultimately prevailed, with Duke defeating Yale, 71-64, and Miami beating Wichita State, 65-57, in Providence, R.I.

In the evening, another Cinderella team, Arkansas-Little Rock, which upended Purdue on Thursday as a No. 12 seed, could not keep the magic going against No. 4-seeded Iowa State, falling, 78-61, in a Midwest Region game in Denver.

The three No. 1 seeds in action — Virginia, Kansas and North Carolina — advanced, even though Virginia trailed No. 9-seeded Butler at the half and U.N.C. battled with Providence before making a strong second-half charge.

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Yale’s Justin Sears in the first half against Duke on Saturday.CreditMichael Dwyer/Associated Press

And the most eye-popping score of the day belonged to Gonzaga, a No. 11 seed that trounced No. 3-seeded Utah, 82-59, in a Midwest Region blowout that left many wondering how the Bulldogs had ended up seeded so low.

And while No. 9-seeded Butler led top-seeded Virginia by 2 points at the half in a Midwest Region matchup dominated by defense, the Bulldogs could not keep up with the Cavaliers’ tandem of Malcolm Brogdon and Anthony Gill, who combined for 41 points in Virginia’s 77-69 win in Raleigh, N.C.

After the tournament’s turbulent second day on Friday, when, for the first time, 13th, 14th and 15th seeds all won on the same day, the games on Saturday lent a momentary pause to the bracket hysteria.

But they were not devoid of drama. The delicious West Region matchup between No. 4-seeded Duke and No. 12-seeded Yale seemed symbolic of the tournament so far: No team can be considered safe, no matter the lead.

The Bulldogs had never been to this stage before — their win over Baylor was the program’s first in the N.C.A.A. tournament — while the Blue Devils, of course, were the defending national champions.

And in the early minutes, Duke was living up to that title. The Blue Devils hit nine of their first 11 3-point attempts and built a 23-point halftime lead. In other words, Duke was taking Yale to school.

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Miami advanced to the round of 16 for the third time in program history.CreditMark L. Baer/USA Today Sports, via Reuters

And yet, just as it looked like the game was well in hand — and the viewing parties could start to wind down at Mory’s in New Haven — momentum finally crept into Yale’s corner. The Bulldogs started forcing turnovers. The Blue Devils missed shots. A lead that was as large as 27 at one point was whittled down to single digits late in the second half.

No team in tournament history had ever rallied back from a deficit larger than 25. But Yale was beginning to threaten history.

Led by Brandon Sherrod and Makai Mason, a 15-0 run brought the Bulldogs to 7 points behind with 11 minutes 39 seconds remaining. They would get even closer, cutting the lead to 65-61 with just over a minute remaining.

“I knew they weren’t 23 points better than us,” Yale Coach James Jones said. “I knew we were going to have a chance to come back.”

But Duke’s size and athleticism, and a crucial switch to a one-three-one zone, tempered Yale’s rally. Grayson Allen scored 29 points, and Brandon Ingram added 25. They were too much for the Bulldogs to handle.

“You saw two games today where all four teams won a half,” Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski said, referring to the Miami-Wichita State matchup as well. “Thank goodness for us, we won the last minute of the second half.”

Earlier in Providence, in a South Region game, Angel Rodriguez scored 11 of the first 18 points for No. 3-seeded Miami, which used an 11-0 run to grab an early 18-4 lead. For Wichita State, a No. 11 seed playing its third game since Tuesday, the noon start was not favorable. The Shockers opened by going 1 of 10 from the field with five turnovers in the first nine minutes.

Though Wichita State regrouped slightly, trimming Miami’s lead to 32-19 at the half, Rodriguez almost outscored the Shockers on his own. He started by going 7 for 7 from the field, with 16 points in the first half. The Hurricanes led by as many as 21.

But this is a Wichita State team that is mentally ironclad. Three years removed from a Final Four appearance, the backcourt tandem of Fred VanVleet and Ron Baker were not going down without a fight. Within just eight minutes of the second half, Miami’s lead was down to 5. Then, after a 3-pointer by Baker with 10:23 remaining, the lead was theirs.

“The word ‘quit’ has never sank in well with our vocabulary,” Baker said.

The advantage swung back and forth. It was a 2-point game, 55-53, when Rodriguez hit a floater to push the Hurricanes ahead by 4. A 3-pointer by VanVleet missed, and the immense effort that Wichita State had expended to battle back into the game seemed to have finally caught up. Another Rodriguez 3-pointer sealed the Shockers’ fate, and Miami advanced to the round of 16 for the third time in program history.

“It’s survive and advance, baby,” Miami Coach Jim Larranaga said on the court after the game. “And we just survived.”

The evening slate also featured an East Region game matching two of college basketball’s storied programs, and two of its most territorial fan bases. Indiana, a No. 5 seed, outran No. 4-seeded Kentucky, 73-67, in Des Moines.